Rarely do I go out and purchase a film without having seen any of it, not even trailers. This one was an exception. Given the (almost) unanimous praise from others, coupled with the knowledge that one of the cast has a leading role in another of my favorite films, I decided to skip the rental phase. (I'll leave it as an exercise to the reader to figure out which cast member that is. Of course, this assumes that readers -- or anybody -- ever feel like exercising at all in this day and age. A dubious assumption I know.) So, on my way home from work, I managed to get my hands on the last copy Best Buy had for sale.

Directed by Darren Aronofsky of Pi fame, this movie has a similarly frantic cinematic style. Recurring images, phrases of dialog, shots, and reverberating string melodies punctuate the winding cycles of the film, intensifying in tone until they threaten to drive the viewer's nervous tolerances to the brink of insanity. Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock.

The cinematography and composition of the shots is simply a marvel from beginning to end. In fact, it's almost so good as to lead one to distraction. Every shot feels like it has a picturesque purpuse, with the actors, objects, and lighting arranged just so, if you get my drift. It works.

Some commented that this film was disturbing. They are absolutely correct. There was one scene when I became so filled with revulsion that I wondered if I could take it anymore. My brain and heart felt like they were being plagued with a sad, awful sickness -- a merciless hammer that just kept pounding into the depths of everything I believed to be good about the essence of humanity. My disturbance was caused not so much by the images in and of themselves (they are of the NC-17 category, but not that shocking, really), but by the cumulitive effect all of it was having on my psyche.

I considered hitting the Stop button to give my mind break. It was just too much. (Those who know me know that this is not something I do very often. At all. If ever.) But, I pressed on, sick stomach and all, to make it through to the finish.

As the end credits rolled up, I just felt like weeping from somewhere lost in the depths of my soul. The feeling almost triggers something akin to a young child who has made the unfortunate and fundamental discovery that not everything in the world is good. I don't know how else to word it.

I think I'll skip on writing a plot summary. There are plenty of those to be found elsewhere.

I really should give this movie 4 stars. By all rights, it deserves it. But I knock off 1/2 star for the totally irrational reason that I feel slightly nauseated, in a physical sense, after watching it. In a mental ond emotional sense, that's only the tip of the iceberg.